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Title: Managing Partner

Location: San Francisco, US West

Firm Rating:

Firm Information:

Type: Small Private VC

FIRM DESCRIPTION: First Round Capital is an early stage venture capital firm managed by Josh Kopelman, Chris Fralic, Rob Hayes and Howard Morgan. We look to partner with entrepreneurs to build innovative technology companies.
We are seed-stage investors, often providing a company's first outside capital, and are not afraid of investing in pre-revenue companies. We understand the challenges of launching a new product. We look to take an active role in most of the companies we invest in. We believe our experience, insight and expertise are far more valuable than our capital -- and we look for entrepreneurs who feel the same.
We recognize that time is an extremely valuable resource for an entrepreneur -- and seek not to waste it. We operate as an entrepreneurial shop and are able to make quick decisions. No investment committees. No months of negotiations. If we're going to invest, we usually decide within days.

Posted by
yonkly
on 2010-02-21

PUBLIC:

I had the pleasure of pitching Phin an idea for one of my side-projects, Yonkly (http://yonkly.com). Although it didn't end up raising capital, I found Phin a pleasure to work with. He was excellent in keeping me in the know, and keeping me informed on when to expect a decision. Phin's attitude is a reflection of First Round Capital as a whole. For any entrepreneur, I recommend checking them out.

All the good things I heard were true (well, at least the ones I can confirm given that we didn't make it to terms). FOLLOW THEIR ADVICE: USE LINKEDIN TO GET INTRODUCED. We had our initial screening with Christine -- very open, very thoughtful, very direct. This was one of those "no"s that hurts because you realize how great she/they would be as a partner.

Posted by
kickinit
on 2008-11-01

PUBLIC:

Only met with Chris and Josh. The two are really nice guys. We liked Chris alot. Conversed via email, phone and met in person. Chris was great, easy to pitch, didn't ask the tough questions, was digging the product. Even put us in contact with someone to help with BD.

Posted by
JamesMc
on 2008-06-16

PUBLIC:

Pitched their associate Mazen over the phone (yeah I know nothing beats being in person). One of my better experiences with VCs, he was very engaged and informed and we had a good dialog going out the sector (digital media). In the end the partners passed

Posted by
speedy
on 2008-04-29

PUBLIC:

We recently met with Rob Hayes. We aren't looking for VC funding yet, but will be, and we had a warm introduction. Rob struck is very positively, had good questions, and even has made an introduction to a potentially valuable strategic partner. I was left with a feeling that they could be valuable contributors to my company's future success.

I pitched Howard very early in the formation of the company. He was engaged and attentive. He asked good questions. In the end FRC decided to not invest in the company, but Howard's questions were very valuable in shaping the pitch.

Posted by
taurus
on 2008-01-30

PUBLIC:

Pitched Chris over the phone. It was apparent that he had not spent much time reading & understanding my ES. So I went over everything with him. At the end he said it seems like I understood everything about the business quite well, and although it was in their sweet spot in terms of capital, stage etc. he was going to pass. The reasoning was that he and his colleagues had tried services in the past that overlapped in some aspects what my company was pursuing and had unsatisfactory experiences.

He also asked about what other VCs were interested, which seems like a typical VC question that conveys that they are not leaders where investment is concerned.

Otherwise he seemed unpretentious and nice enough, but basically was wasting my time and his own.

Posted by
MZThrasher
on 2010-12-07

PUBLIC:

I've met and pitched to most of this team (Howard Morgan, Rob Hayes, Christine Herron, Kent Goldman, Josh Kopelman (virtually)...and I truly like each one of them. Josh, exactly as everyone says, gets it and is immediately granular. Rob is a very nice guy, attentive and responsive. Howard I can't say enough about - just a lovely man. Christine, Kent, both very knowledgeable. In each meeting, something helpful comes out of it. No, no funding yet. But the door is open so it's kind of up to us to push inside, if we even end up taking venture. But it stands out as one of the more credible, energetic and smart firms I've met with....and I've met with a few!

Posted by
DavidSiegel
on 2007-12-11

PUBLIC:

Their web site says to network your way to them, which I did. After an email introduction, Chris agreed to take my call. We went through my pitch on the phone, and he listened and was familiar with the space. He said it wasn't in their sweet spot, because we weren't far along enough to show breakout potential, but he was honest and helpful. He invited me to contact him as things progressed. I later met him at a TED event and, even though he's a foot taller than I am, he never looked down on me. Seems to have a lot of integrity and respect for entrepreneurs. I'd go back to him for a later round.

Posted by
GrowthCapital
on 2007-12-04

PUBLIC:

I'm genuinely confused by my interaction with FirstRound.

I spoke with Rob Hayes quite some time ago - a fellow entrepreneur made an introduction to Josh Kopelman and Rob followed up. We had a very brief conversation in which I mentioned we were not yet looking for funding but I wanted to connect and introduce myself because we would be shortly. Rob asked some very reasonable, very standard checklist questions, and I thanked him for his time and indicated that I'd follow up when ready.

A couple of months later, I was about to reach out again when yet a different contact alerted me that he would write to Josh at FirstRound recommending us. I figured that another endorsement couldn't hurt. Out of the blue, I got a Facebook friend request from Josh (who I've never met and my only interaction was via the above introduction). I accepted his request and wrote back saying that while we'd never connected, I had spoken with Rob and our company was actually ready to look for Series A financing. Josh never responded to me at all. He did respond to the contact trying to connect us, saying simply that he looked in the database and "they had already passed." I never heard anything from him or FirstRound again.

It was just a totally different interaction than I've had with any other VC. If a VC isn't interested in my plan, that's fine. There was just something unsettling about the weird contact and the fact that they "passed" on our plan without being offered an opportunity to invest, and without ever telling us.

Posted by
tomtom
on 2007-11-30

PUBLIC:

We met both Josh & Rob at a conference, and gave them a quick demo. Followed up with Rob later, and found him to be helpful, with constructive feedback and offers to introduce us to his contacts. They opted not to invest, as we are later stage than their sweet spot, but they got back to us quickly. I would definitely pitch them again.

Posted by
secondtime
on 2007-10-25

PUBLIC:

I was just starting my second company and raising angel money (primarily from people who had invested in the first one), when I got an intro to Josh Kopelman. I arranged a call to get to know him, not to pitch him on the business. We spoke for 30 minutes, spent some time on what I was working on and he said they wanted in to the round. He outlined the due dilligence steps... Amazingly, from there things went very smoothly, we closed the seed round oversubscribed, and they have been a wonderful partner in working with us on a business that is notably more complicated than most of the other deals out there. If you're starting a company, I wouldn't hesitate to encourage you to get an intro to one of the guys at First Round Capital.

We recently pitched First Round. Overall I like their brand and what they stand for (first round), but it seems as though the firm is 'severely' slipping and is no longer top of mind for founders. I've heard negative feedback echoed across the board from friends.

We met with Rob recently. We had a 1hr meeting scheduled. He showed up late - ergh already. Was engaged for 10mins, pulled out his phone, starting reading email, looked up to seemingly pretend like he cared, and pushed us to speed up. The meeting ended early. We followed up with a "thank you for the time" style note, and no surprise, never heard anything back. Guy seems like a total arrogant ass, frankly. Sure, it's cool to pass on us (we raised a ~2m seed so we found plenty of others interested) but at least have the nerve to write us back. We spent our precious time (we're busy too) pitching you and speaking on the phone prior to the in-person, and yet you couldn't even write us back or take some time away from your email to listen?

Not impressed with my interactions, have shared the feedback with friends, who funny enough those that had also pitched first round, came back with similar feedback. Avoid.

Posted by
anonymous
on 2012-02-07

Posted by
calico
on 2011-08-19

PUBLIC:

After seeing everyone's response to First Round, I wanted to document our own experience with them from start to finish. We just reached out to them today and as we get responses - or don't - we'll post here.

Some background on who we are:

We are a mobile and social app company that specialized in really innovative solutions for market problems. Our philosophy is that there is no reason we shouldn't go after 10% of a market if that segment is underserved by the major players.

Our background is in anonymity, video games, marketing and monetization. We're currently raising our seed round for our first product which is releasing on Sept. 1st. We've gone through the Springboard incubator here in San Diego and now are intent on raising the funds to make our products hit the market and dominate the segment we are after :)

Posted by
Sean Black - Founder & CEO, SalesCrunch
on 2011-01-10

PUBLIC:

If you remember the old E.F. Hutton commercials and know Charlie then you will appreciate the reference. If not, let me explain - I met Charlie over a year ago through his active involvement in the New York tech start-up community. At the time I was founding VP, Sales at Trulia.com. I told him I was about to start another company but wasn't interested in VC funding yet. We got to know each other over the next few month, during which time he respected my decision and never brought up the funding again. I was impressed with how highly active and giving he was to the community. I was even more impressed with how highly regarded and respected he was by the community in return. In my opinion, the tireless championing of the New York tech community by Charlie, Scott Heiferman (Meetup) and Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) is a big reason NYC is becoming a start up mecca and a true alternative to the Valley.

I was so impressed with Charlie during those months that he was one of the first people I talked to when I was ready to open the funding gates to VC, despite having been on the founding team of a company backed by Ron Conway, Sequoia and Accel. Charlie had me meet with Chris Fralic that week and pitch at the partner meeting the week after that. We had a check from them two weeks later. While Chris took the board seat as a Partner, I asked that Charlie take a board observer seat, as I knew his deep involvement in the community, ideas and willingness to help would keep us moving forward.

Its been several months and Charlie has lived up to all these expectations and more. He has at least one killer idea for us each time we meet. More importantly, he is willing to leverage his following to help us recruit talent, get the word out and promote our events. In fact, it was Charlie who gave us the idea to host "SalesSchool" events. We decided to do our first event in December with one week notice. Charlie jumped right in to help. He secured the large forum at NYU that holds 400+ people through his connections and promoted the event in his newsletters and in a separate email to his network. We hoped to have 100 people at the event, but we had over 380 people RSVP, largely due to Charlie's help and the fact that when Charlie speaks, the New York tech community listens. He has earned that respect after five or six tireless years supporting and nurturing it.

Yes, Charlie is involved a ton of stuff and is a busy guy. But rest assured he makes deep commitments selectively and invests in them heavily once he does.